2019 Draft, Pick #30 - Kevin Porter Jr., USC

[NMCav]

Reddish in particular was pretty bad, and I didn't love him or Little as prospects. But they were top-5 recruits, and they were important roleplayers for top-10 teams, while KPJ was roughly a top-30 recruit (some had him higher, some lower) and an important roleplayer for a fringe top-100 team. Plus, I think there's reason to believe that Reddish and Little's roleplayer skills will translate to the NBA more readily than KPJ's roleplayer skills (because as I said before, there's just not a big market for decent microwave bench scorers).

I don't think KPJ is too similar to JR right now, but I'm trying to imagine what he'd look like if he gave up his chucking ways and tried to mould himself into a useful team player. He's certainly more similar to JR than to any of the other comps that've been thrown around in here.

He played above average man to man defense for USC. Thats something Little or Reddish really didn't do. (Reddish got steals but wasn't really great at shutting opponents down). He was also a roleplayer because of the injury he had. He was playing hurt most of the year and was still more productive then Little or Reddish. Reddish may have scored more minutes but played more minutes and was way less efficient.

What role player skills is Reddish bringing because he played that role at Duke and failed miserably. What role playing skills is Little bringing he was so bad he barely got off the bench at UNC. 18 minutes per game with absolutely no range on his shot. KPJ is just as good of a defender as Reddish or Little. And microwave bench scorers aren't needed anymore? Not a Big market for them? Warriors wish they had a scorer off the bench might have saved them when they lost KD and Klay also why they took Jordan Poole. That Fred Van Vleet guy in Toronto sure didn't help them win the finals or anything.

If KPJ comes in and works on his defense which he has said he wants to be a defender throughout the process. He has more defensive upside then any of our other guards or wings not counting Nwaba who may or may not be back. If he starts working off the ball instead of lazying around and develops his catch in shoot game why should he forgot how to handle/iso as well? He likely had the best handles of any SG/SF in this draft not named RJ Barrett. I get it you don't see the upside and wanna put him in a role that doesn't completely fit his game. If hes the third playmaker on the team I won't complain. Most teams have 2 or 3 guys now that make plays for themselves on the court. Hes not going to be a iso player every time he touches the ball. No one is saying that. But for him to have the ability to take someone 1 on 1 if needed is a good skill to have for a player. You can't teach talent and this kid has talent more all around game then JR Smith ever had.

 

[inliner311]

Soooo...what's the plan then? Say we give KPJ the ball and let him go 1-on-1 for five possessions a game the whole season. He produces some highlights, naturally, but he's pretty inefficient (as 99% of rookies are when they try to go 1-on-1 against NBA veterans). Then what? We do it again next year? At what point do we decide he's probably not the next Kobe/TMac and phase him into more of a supporting role?

We already have two great 1-on-1 scorers as our "core" ... what are we doing adding a third 1-on-1 scorer type, who's clearly worse than the first two? This is like a reductio ad absurdum case of "draft BPA!" except that it's actually happening to the Cavs in reality.

I said this a few pages earlier but the plan should be for Delly to control the second unit and KPJ gets plays run for him. If he executes them properly, Delly will be right there to make sure he hits him with the ball. Teach KPJ to play off the ball properly.

No one is ever going to develop if Clarkson is the focal point of the second unit. The priority should be to pump Clarkson up and trade him as early as we can. Then Windler and KPJ can get their opportunities while Delly makes sure its within the system Beilein wants to run.

 

[DOTL]

Kyrie is a different type of blockhead, and Melo doesn't work for me because I hate his game.

How can you not like Melos game? Dude can score from all over the court. His offensive repitoire is polished. Love his mid-range, post, back to the basket game.

As far as skills go, he was at the top of the league. He Could score with the best of them, on the best of them.

As far as brains go to apply his game to winning production, he didnt have that going in his favor.

 

[AussieCavFan]

I'm not too worried he is going to be iso hungry in the league. From the footage I've seen most of his buckets come from spot up 3s, transition plays before the defense is set and some iso plays when the shot clock is below 10. Sure he is going to do some more adventurous things in college he is the most talented player on the floor. Admittedly this is just game highlight footage so I haven't seen missed shots etc.

He would be an issue if he started stopping ball movement and setting up an iso play mid shot clock. I believe the coaching players receive in the first few years in the league sets a player up for their future role and flaws. I don't think Beilein will stand for that type of shit.

 

[DOTL]

Looping back...

I don’t think Kyrie is dumb. I actually think he’s very intelligent and he got stuck in a situation where he was overshadowed by LeBron and from what I understand his dad may be a little wacky. Additionally, dumbfuck sports media is set up in such a way that they don’t take advantage of intelligent guys like him and mine their intelligence. Instead, they take their worst moments and splash them on twitter and run them through the 24 hour news cycle.

Kyrie could actually be a goldmine for guys with podcasts if he’d loosen up a little bit. He has his guard up a lot, presumably bc he keeps getting burnt.

Aside from the flat earth thing (which I'm not sure even he believes that, could just be a pawn to push the division / confusion agenda), Kyrie is not dumb. He's a freemason. He knows some things.

He had that IG post something about "the age of no secrets is upon us", not verbatim.

Common folk laughed at him and called him dumb. Its not that he's dumb, its just that people don't know what the heck he's talking about. If somebody doesn't know what you are talking about, of course you will come off as looking "dumb". Its just that Kyrie was talking about something simpletons aren't aware of. Which isn't really a secret.

Look at the way society is set up.. Is there any secret? No. The "All Seeing Eye" fixed society to know everything about you.

They put cell phones in everybody's hands, set up multiple social media platforms, internet on the phones with your email and social media accounts attached to it, microchipped our phones to trace every move.. Our internet searches are traced, every single one of them, to the very letter and spaces applied.

They know your deepest darkest secrets. They know every move.. Every purchase. Every transaction.

If they wanted to, they could just pull your social security number up, and have all of your email accounts pulled up, go through them, look at your moves, searches, study your life for a week or 2 and know you better than you know your self.


While Kyrie is talking about something those who are "woke" know and understand, those who are sleep will look at him like he's stupid when they are the ones blind. Jokes on them. Would hate to be in their shoes.

 

[Goldin Brown]

I think KPJ just needs good coaching, the question I have is will he accept coaching and is he willing to accept a role on a team. He needs to develop his game before you can let him loose imo, seems like he just has bad habits and doesn't really know how to be an efficient scorer. He's young, so there's hope for him. I think if he learns to play within an offense and learns to use his iso ability within the flow of that offense, then he can be lethal. Seems like bball IQ/shot selection will be two of the bigger aspects of his game that will determine if he's good or not.

 

[Simmy]

So excited about this kid:

 

[ajz20]

Given his background I would hope the team has a very specific plan off the court for him. I think we forgot how young these guys are. This guy was in HS 13 months ago and only played half a season in college. Who is going to be his mentor off and on the court?
Looking at the videos the kid has some solid raw talent; the key word is raw. Player development over the next 24 months is going to make or break his long term career. I like that we have two college coaches on the staff but I assume the Cavs will have a plan in place because they were willing to invest 5 million just for his rights.

Plenty of prospects with raw traits have failed in the nba because of lack of maturity, poor work ethic and poor attitudes . Good organizations have procedures in place so that these type of prospects get every opportunity to flourish.

I would temper expectations early in the season. Good news is the Cavs should be able to give him plenty on playing time as the year goes on. This is the type of kid that is going to tell us if the front office and new staff is going to be good at player development, which is critical to a rebuild working.

 

[letgocavs]

He reminds me of New York jr where everything came together for him. Athleticism and shooting. The way he gets flashy and finishes around the rim is like jr. that between the legs step back looks exactly like jr. my opinion of course.

 

[CBBI]

Porter Jr. reminds me a little bit of Kelly Oubre Jr.

Looks the part. Has a strong body with very good athleticism and clearly some NBA caliber skills, but not really all that good at anything in particular.

And hey, you don’t really have to be that good to make a lot of money. Oubre’s about to secure the bag and he’s graded out as a negative player offensively and defensively every year of his NBA career.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

Soooo...what's the plan then? Say we give KPJ the ball and let him go 1-on-1 for five possessions a game the whole season. He produces some highlights, naturally, but he's pretty inefficient (as 99% of rookies are when they try to go 1-on-1 against NBA veterans). Then what? We do it again next year? At what point do we decide he's probably not the next Kobe/TMac and phase him into more of a supporting role?

We already have two great 1-on-1 scorers as our "core" ... what are we doing adding a third 1-on-1 scorer type, who's clearly worse than the first two? This is like a reductio ad absurdum case of "draft BPA!" except that it's actually happening to the Cavs in reality.

This is my best guess/opinion...and yes, it's a guess/opinion.

I doubt that KJP - at the present time - is suited temperamentally to be a deferring role player He's the kind of kid who has a chip on his shoulder, and will want to prove immediately to everyone how great he truly is. He won't do that by first showing he adapts well to being a defense-first role player. It'll be by showing everyone how great an individu scorer he is, which is a common way immature guys with an inflated sense of their own abilities act. They want that respect/opportunity before they've earned it. And I think that's a very poor fit for this team given Garland/Sexton.

KPJ's ideal role given his projected ceiling - assuming his individual skills develop to that point (he probably thinks he's there already) -is as a starting SG who is a plus defender. That means one of Garland/Sexton must be either traded, or demoted to the bench within a year.or two. If that starting SG slot isn't open to KPJ here, I suspect it'll be a problem.

So completely aside from whether or not KPJ eventually develops the required skills, the challenge with KPJ is going to how willing he is to start off by accepting a diminished role. Is he willing to work his way up from the bottom by demonstrating defense and being a good team player, as opposed to chasing glory right away? Can he mature enough while still a Cav to have the required patience?

I dunno. If pressed, I'd say probably not, and if he does eventually reach the ceiling some see for him, it will be with his second or third team. But I certainly wouldn't bet the house on that, and it's always possible he'll find success here.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

I said this a few pages earlier but the plan should be for Delly to control the second unit and KPJ gets plays run for him. If he executes them properly, Delly will be right there to make sure he hits him with the ball. Teach KPJ to play off the ball properly.

No one is ever going to develop if Clarkson is the focal point of the second unit. The priority should be to pump Clarkson up and trade him as early as we can. Then Windler and KPJ can get their opportunities while Delly makes sure its within the system Beilein wants to run.

If Delly is running the second unit as the PG, that's going to prevent Sextin from imporving his distributing skills because he won't be running the second unit.

 

[Nathan S]

This is my best guess/opinion...and yes, it's a guess/opinion.

I doubt that KJP - at the present time - is suited temperamentally to be a deferring role player He's the kind of kid who has a chip on his shoulder, and will want to prove immediately to everyone how great he truly is. He won't do that by first showing he adapts well to being a defense-first role player. It'll be by showing everyone how great an individu scorer he is, which is a common way immature guys with an inflated sense of their own abilities act. They want that respect/opportunity before they've earned it. And I think that's a very poor fit for this team given Garland/Sexton.

KPJ's ideal role given his projected ceiling - assuming his individual skills develop to that point (he probably thinks he's there already) -is as a starting SG who is a plus defender. That means one of Garland/Sexton must be either traded, or demoted to the bench within a year.or two. If that starting SG slot isn't open to KPJ here, I suspect it'll be a problem.

So completely aside from whether or not KPJ eventually develops the required skills, the challenge with KPJ is going to how willing he is to start off by accepting a diminished role. Is he willing to work his way up from the bottom by demonstrating defense and being a good team player, as opposed to chasing glory right away? Can he mature enough while still a Cav to have the required patience?

I dunno. If pressed, I'd say probably not, and if he does eventually reach the ceiling some see for him, it will be with his second or third team. But I certainly wouldn't bet the house on that, and it's always possible he'll find success here.

This is about where I'm at. I don't think he's a totally hopeless prospect; I had him ranked right around Keldon Johnson and ahead of Poole, the two guys picked immediately before him. Just don't understand the fit on the Cavs, and don't understand how "fit doesn't matter, maximize talent!" is supposed to look on the basketball court. Sounds like a great way to pick guys who reach their ceilings on their second or third teams.

 

[Real Deal]

Feel terrible about the kid's situation regarding his father, but he just might be destined to evolve into a star. He has the game, the name, and the story. He just needs to be developed and stay focused on being a complete professional. He has the prototypical frame to be an elite shooting guard, he has some tools, needs to add more tools and even sharpen some. But nonetheless, his potential is there. Bielen will untap it.

 

[inliner311]

If Delly is running the second unit as the PG, that's going to prevent Sextin from imporving his distributing skills because he won't be running the second unit.

That's true. I do think it's balancing act because Garland, Sexton, and Porter also need to work on their off the ball skills to make everything work. The coaching staff have to think about how they distribute the ball handling so it doesn't create ball hogging.

I've always thought Delly should be the person to work out the timing with a play then to teach it to the young guys. I don't think Garland, Sexton, or Porter should be given alot of ball handling duties unless they have plays drawn up for each of them to run. Getting increase on ball duties should be a reward for executing plays for others.